Dynamic Shear Jamming

A suspension of cornstarch particles in water is liquid-like when perturbed lightly, but turns into a jammed solid when sheared strongly. We explored how this solidification propagates through the material using high-speed imaging after applying a sudden deformation. This jamming transition is related to, but distinct from the shear-thickening that this material also exhibits.
Our findings are published in Nature:
I.R. Peters, S. Majumdar and H.M. Jaeger, Direct observation of dynamic shear jamming in dense suspensions, Nature (2016) DOI: 10.1038/nature17167